Category: Medellín, Antioquia, Colombia

I arrived in Medellín on a Saturday night and the liveliness in the streets on Sunday morning was refreshing. I was staying right off of Avenida El Poblado (San Fernando Plaza Hotel) and it turns out every Sunday morning until 1PM half of the avenue is shut down so locals can walk, jog or ride their bike. This is a great opportunity to rent a bicycle along the streets near Parque de El Poblado or San Fernando Plaza and experience this event, Ciclovía, the way the locals in El Poblado, Medellín do.

If you’ll be in Medellín on a Sunday, I also recommend planning to do things open 24 hours (graffiti streets, Mirador de las palmas, etc.) or tours that you can schedule in advance. When I was looking into the best places for lunch I immediately noticed that there were very few local restaurants open; after asking a friend and doing some of my own research I realized Sunday is the only day of the week most people in Medellín have off so few restaurants and even fewer different establishments are open.

Fun Fact: The average business hours in Medellín range from as early as 7AM to as late as 5:30PM with a 1 hour lunch break, many people also work half days on Saturday with a 2 hour lunch break on weekdays.

The day I arrived in Medellin I rode on some of city’s public transportation for the first time.

The metro in Medellín was by far one of the most impressive public transit systems I’ve seen: fast service, no delays and clean, like if I needed another reminder that the NYC MTA system really needs to step its game up. At certain metro stops there is also a free transfer available to one of the metrocable lines in the city. Continue reading “Medellín’s Metro”→

The people of Medellín work hard to steer away from the narrative created by Pablo Escobar’s drug cartel and the violence it brought to the city. Whether through urbanization, art or museums the people are letting visitors know Medellín has a lot more to offer than the history of one of the largest drug cartels in the world. Continue reading “Pictopía Graffiti”→

Often times, Medellín is illustrated as a very dangerous and violent place, so much so, that when I told one of my Colombian friends I was going he shared with me how happy it makes him when people visit his country and make their own conclusions about it rather than being solely influenced by the media coverage.

This violent and dangerous portrayal dates back to when the city was the capital of the world’s cocaine business under the surveillance of Pablo Escobar, one of the world’s largest drug-traffickers. Continue reading “(Not So) Violent Medellín”→